Love Island boss hits back at claims this year's season was unpopular

A boss at ITV has hit back at claims this year's Love Island had low ratings and was unpopular with viewers.

Despite the seriously impressive build up and monumental hype, the show's launch figures were slightly lower than previous years. Love Island 2021 hit 2.46 million overnight viewers, which was down on last year's winter series launch, which had 2.5 million, and a million below the last summer series in 2019, which took in 3.3 million.

This week's finale did manage to reach 2.8 million viewers on ITV2, though, higher than the winter 2020 finale by 430,000.

Now Kevin Lygo, an ITV boss, has insisted the viewing figures weren't concerning, and they weren't planning to bring the show to an end. "This is a pattern you see when new programmes come along and they're huge phenomenons," he said at the Edinburgh Television Festival (via Deadline).

"There's many years left in it. The challenge thrown down to producers is to make some subtle changes to spice it up a bit and keep it as fresh as you can."

This comes as Laura Whitmore revealed applications were already open for Love Island 2022, with the official description reading, "How do you fancy finding love in the sun? We're now on the lookout for lively singles from across the country to take part. ITV2 are looking for vibrant singles from across the UK who want to head to the sun, in search of love!"

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